Windows 7 Pro to Windows 8 Pro Upgrade won't complete

HowardWoodard

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I have a custom-built PC with an Asus P5Q Pro mobo, Intel Q9550 Quad CPU, 8 GB Ram, Asus Radeon HD 4870 graphics card -- single monitor, with nearly 400 GB of hard drive free space running Windows 7 Professional sp 1 64-bit.

I ran the Windows 8 Upgrade Assessment tool and other than telling me that I would need to get a DVD player and my gadgets would no longer be available it did not identify any issues. I clicked next and it suggested I upgrade to Windows 8 Pro. I clicked next and purchased the upgrade and downloaded the install file. That was the last thing that worked.

It goes through the installation without incident until it gets to 65% of setting up devices. Then it says that it encountered an issue that prevents a successful installation, suggests that I research DPC_Watchdog_Violation, reboots and rolls back to Windows 7. I can find nothing that approximates a setup log file that would give me any more information about what the issue was. If you google DPC Watchdog Violation it doesn't take long to see that it's a very common thing and the only thread that was marked as "solved" didn't say what the solution was.

After trying a few things suggested by some folks on the Tom's Hardware forum, including trying a completely different graphics card, I gave up and called the Microsoft Answer Desk. A guy spent an entire day uninstalling things like Norton, non-MS browsers etc and having me disconnect all attached devices. It never changed a thing. 65% and boom, roll back. Every time, no matter what he did.

He then escalated to a more technical support tech who spent the next day doing essentially the same as the first guy did but also uninstalling devices and using Revo Uninstaller to clean my PC of just about all of it's apps. Still, not one iota of difference. 65% and boom, roll back. Both of these guys lamented the lack of a log file that would give them any information about what the issue was.

They ran out of spit and ended by telling me that it was a common problem and that lots of people were experiencing it and they expected a fix from MS just about any time.

So I was surprised to not find any threads here describing a similar issue. I looked in the general discussion areas as well as here and if others are experiencing this same problem then I must have missed it.

Does this sound familiar to anyone? Especially anyone that knows how to fix it?

Very frustrating...
 
Last edited:

My Computer

Yep, I just had a failure at 98%.

Will have a good dig and see if there is a hidden log somewhere
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    7/8/ubuntu/Linux Deepin
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
It should be here:

%systemdrive%\$WINDOWS.~BT\Sources\Panther\setuperr.log
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    7/8/ubuntu/Linux Deepin
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
I had this same exact issue. The only thing that worked for me was to select the "keep nothing" option. Which deletes programs, settings, and user data. I backed up my data, installed windows 8, re installed my programs and put my data back on. Probably the best option for me
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
My machine has lots of applications on it. Just the thought of having to reinstall and update them, assuming that I could even find all of the setup programs and purchase keys, is enough to keep me on Win 7.

@SIW2: The system automatically rolls back to Windows 7. Will the Windows 7 setup error log file still be there afterwards? In your case, was the log file helpful? Have you got a successful upgrade yet?

Surely this is something that is a big enough deal that MS is working on it as we speak. Surely...

Capture.JPG
 

My Computer

I don't want to mark this as solved because I was never able to get the upgrade to work. Perhaps there should be a way to mark the thread as cancelled or closed without resolution.

I think something so fundamental as an upgrade process should #1 work and #2 be well understood by the MS techs. Neither of these are true in my case. I've decided not to spend more than the 3+ days I've already spent on it.

I just called Microsoft and had the order cancelled and my purchase price refunded.

Thanks all for trying to help me.
 

My Computer

The same thing happens to me but I get all the way to choosing the color scheme and then it asks me for my Microsoft account number but then cannot find it, so I skip that to enter it later so it goes to finalizing settings screen for 5 seconds and then I get a black screen. It has been four hours now and still black screen but the hdd is still working away so I will wait a while longer. I have about 2 terabytes of data so I am hoping that this is because of this that it is taking so long. I will let you guys no what happens.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    self built
    CPU
    Intel I5-3524 -3.07
    Motherboard
    ASUS
    Memory
    8 gig
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS -NVIDIA
It has done this 2 other times and just reverts back automatically to w7 so I cannot do a refresh
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    self built
    CPU
    Intel I5-3524 -3.07
    Motherboard
    ASUS
    Memory
    8 gig
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS -NVIDIA

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    ME, XP,Vista,Win7,Win8,Win8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Other Info
    Notebooks x 3

    Desktops x 5

    Towers x 4
I have it on a flash drive, that's how I did the upgrade.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    self built
    CPU
    Intel I5-3524 -3.07
    Motherboard
    ASUS
    Memory
    8 gig
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS -NVIDIA
Concerning a few questions raised in this thread.

- the black screen thing: it's a bug in Intel HD graphics driver (AFAIK) - and some Nvidia graphic cards are causing this issue
- the install hangs issue: I have identified in German MS answers forum a couple of users with one thing in common: An AMD CPU and Nvidia hardware on 64 bit Win 8. I suggested to install a 32 bit edition of WIn 8 for test purposes. Feedback was: installed successful - so it seems that there is something buggy in 64-Bit-Chipset drivers used on nvidia hardware with AMD cpus.

To analyze setup issues, I wrote a small article - whilst most of my articles still in German, I've translated the article below.

Maybe it will be helpful (if it isn't in the appropriate place here, maybe the mods can split it of and move it to the right category).

1: Windows 8 Upgrade-Failure troubleshooting and analysis « Borns IT- & Windows-Blog
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 7/Win 8/Android x86/iOS/OS X
I updated all my drivers, uninstalled ESET Security 5 and tried again, although the procedure sped up a lot it still did not install. It just reverts back to W7. I have done upgrades on 2 different laptops without any issue and now this.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    self built
    CPU
    Intel I5-3524 -3.07
    Motherboard
    ASUS
    Memory
    8 gig
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS -NVIDIA
How far does it get?

Does it quit before the first reboot ?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    7/8/ubuntu/Linux Deepin
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
It gets about 95% installed and then it reverts back to w7.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    self built
    CPU
    Intel I5-3524 -3.07
    Motherboard
    ASUS
    Memory
    8 gig
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS -NVIDIA
I updated all my drivers and did an sfc scan which fixed some files and tried again. I guess it is not meant to be. Maybe they should of tested a little more before the final release. I am sure that i am not alone with this error.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    self built
    CPU
    Intel I5-3524 -3.07
    Motherboard
    ASUS
    Memory
    8 gig
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS -NVIDIA
I have a ThinkPad and w hat finally worked for me was to:

1) Undock my laptop
2) Upgrade apps flagged by the Upgrade Assistant as needing to be updated
3) Uninstalled apps flagged by the Upgrade Assistance as having Win8 compatibility issues
4) Closing down all non-essential apps and services prior to running the install

There were suggestions to boot using only MS services, but that didn't work, either. I was only successful after the above.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro x64
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Lenovo ThinkPad W700
I am going to try again, fingers crossed!!!!!!!!!
I have a ThinkPad and w hat finally worked for me was to:

1) Undock my laptop
2) Upgrade apps flagged by the Upgrade Assistant as needing to be updated
3) Uninstalled apps flagged by the Upgrade Assistance as having Win8 compatibility issues
4) Closing down all non-essential apps and services prior to running the install

There were suggestions to boot using only MS services, but that didn't work, either. I was only successful after the above.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    self built
    CPU
    Intel I5-3524 -3.07
    Motherboard
    ASUS
    Memory
    8 gig
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS -NVIDIA
Tried everything you said: Started install at 7:34, got up to Moving settings 100%, Restart pc, Puke, 8:55
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    self built
    CPU
    Intel I5-3524 -3.07
    Motherboard
    ASUS
    Memory
    8 gig
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS -NVIDIA
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